The Native Lawn

Buffalo Grass by Sally + Andy Wasowski

Your beautiful native lawn will need little water once established, will provide habitat for many wild species, and will only need to be cut once a year to be kept clean. It can only handle mild foot traffic, so if you use your lawn more intensively, you may consider another alternative.

• Visit the Native American Seeds website for a variety of great grass and wildflower mixes, as well as more specific planting directions.
• Check out Prairie Nursery if you’re a northerner.

Hybrid Turf Lawn
The newer hybrid grass lawns are more suitable for heavier use. Turffalo, is a buffalo grass hybrid developed by Texas Tech University, that requires little water and little mowing. It only grows 4″ tall, so you could quit mowing altogether if you were in the mood. Turffalo can also handle heavy wear and a variety of sunlight conditions.

This is a great choice for those of us who spend a lot of time on our lawns and are hesitant to lose our open green play space.

The Herb Lawn
The herb lawn is a creative alternative composed low growing herbs such as clover and thyme that can handle moderate traffic and will release sweet smells wherever you step. Buy 4″ pots of low growing “Creeping” or “Magic Carpet” thyme, which will not grow over a few inches tall, and plant them at a 6-12″ spacing. Other scented and medicinal herbs such as rosemary, oregano, St. John’s wort, sage and lavender make a nice border that increases the soothing effect of the space.

• Hobbs and Hopkins out of Oregon makes some interesting custom herb lawn seed mixes that I have not had the opportunity to experiment with.
  
• High Country Gardens also has a variety of herb and native ground covers.

Fake Grass
The only situation I could recommend installing this is for athletic fields. Some people are starting to reconsider them as alternatives as water demand increases, but I’m not convinced they are worthwhile. They will hold up to the heaviest foot traffic and take no watering, but they also give nothing back. All of the previous alternatives I’ve mentioned will have a positive impact on the environment, by providing habitat and cleaning the air and water.

Design
Most importantly, when planning your antilawn, think about how you really will use the space. Try to minimize lawn area to just what you need and design more space for beds, paths, and patios. Why bother with a lawn when you can mulch it over for roses, veggies or a just a quiet place to sit and watch the neighbors mow?

Eat the view produced a cool promotional video that is worth watching. Read on to see it and share it with friends.

His first edible antilawn was planted in the middle of American suburbia, Salina, Kansas, in 2005, and he has since planted five more across the United States and over the pond to England.

His latest garden was planted here in Austin, TX and it was great to see such enthusiasm for his work. Keep it up Fritz.

Seirra Ridge Garden via Arthouse Austin

To learn more visit his website or buy his new book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.

Read the full story here on the BBC.

Lawns are nature purged of sex or death. No wonder Americans like them so much.

The whole book (buy it) is a great read, but if you’re more of a mower than a gardener you can find the individual piece online.

Recently, a NASA-funded study, which used satellite data collected by the Department of Defense, determined that, including golf courses, lawns in the United States cover nearly fifty thousand square miles—an area roughly the size of New York State. The same study concluded that most of this New York State-size lawn was growing in places where turfgrass should never have been planted.

Read the full story.

Americans spend so much money and time on their lawns, you’d think we either eat or sell grass. More land in the United States is planted in turf–32 million acres–than in corn. The typical American lawn sucks up 10,000 gallons of supplemental water (non-rainwater) annually.

Her article is full of scary facts on lawns. You Download a PDF of the article in a handy trifold brochure format to get the story and share it with friends.

11 — According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average home owner’s gas-powered lawn mower pumps out as much pollution per hour as 11 automobiles do.

Read the whole story at Treehugger.